The Proposal
by AngelaRB
Summary: The story of the night that James Potter proposed to Lily Evans. This is my first ever HP story. PLEASE read and review. :)


To any normal passer-by, the young man sitting treacherously on top of the roof of the ten-story London flat building where he had lived since finishing school two years earlier would have looked like an individual who was ready to hurdle from the top and end it all.

Thankfully for him, though, James Potter was far from what a typical person would call normal, and with his trusty Nimbus 1000 by his side he was in no danger at all. Unfortunately, the thought of throwing himself into the streets below was beginning to sound like a good idea at this point. He was certain that if the impact didn't kill him, a trusty Muggle car or a nice big double-decker bus would be along soon enough to finish the job.

Laughing those thoughts out of his head almost as soon as they entered it, James leaned backward so that anyone looking up would just see a pair of long legs dangling over the side of the building and gazed up at the stars. It was an unusually clear night, and the stars were almost as bright as they were on those perfect nights at Hogwarts when he and Lily would sneak outside under his invisibility cloak and sit next to the lake, just holding each other and savoring each moment that they were that they could be alone without any interruptions. On those nights they didn't even need to speak. The way Lily would gaze up at him and give him the most gut wrenching looks with her ridiculously beautiful green eyes, the way she'd smile at him when and press her fingertips over his lips when he'd try to say something suave - yes, those moments were far more powerful than any words that either of them could speak.

James sighed, ran his fingers over the smooth wooden handle of his broom, and was immediately overcome by how much each shining star in the sky reminded him of that breathtaking twinkle in Lily's eyes.

"By Merlin, I love her." No truer words had ever been spoken by any wizard in the history of the world, but James still thought that what he was planning to do as soon as Lily arrived was the most absurd thing he had ever done in a lifetime of doing plenty of absurd things. He had been weighing the pros and cons all day. Yes, they were only nineteen. Yes, Lily's family hated him. But he was certainly financially stable - his own family had made sure of that. And the level of certainty that was in his heart that there was no other girl in the world who was greater than Lily was enough to outweigh the cons by leaps and bounds.

James was about to stick his hand in his pocket to stroke the tiny wooden box that he had picked up in Diagon Alley that morning, but was startled by the sound of a pair of feet making contact with the roof behind him.

"A bit jumpy, are we Prongs?" Sirius Black flashed James his most enormous grin as he dismounted his broom and immediately sat beside him. James had sent owls to his three best friends in the entire world, Sirius, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew (Though Peter was on holiday in Italy with his mum and dad at the time. James thought it would have been rude to not include him.), telling them to meet him on the roof of his building. He badly needed to talk to them. No sooner had Sirius sat down beside James, obviously anxiously awaiting what he had to say, that Remus Lupin appeared on the other side of the roof and sat on the other side of James with his own broom in his hands.

Sirius leaned forward so that he could look into Remus's eyes as he spoke to him. "They're expecting quite a full moon on Saturday, eh mate?"

Remus dismissed Sirius's concern with a wave of his hand and let out a short laugh. "No worse than the last one. I picked up my potion from Mr. Dollinger a few days back, and I'm actually quite looking forward to taking a nice long nap for a bit." Remus's eyes lit up for a moment and he shot a huge smile at Sirius. "That reminds me - you'll love this - I heard that old Professor Mersey announced that she's retiring after this year."

"It's about time. That old bat looked like she was on her last leg nine years ago."

"But that's not the funny part. Guess who Dumbledore chose to take over Potions next year?"

"Who?" Sirius took off his leather jacket and neatly placed it next to his broom, and as soon as he looked back at Remus and saw the look on his face he didn't need to hear his answer. "No!"

"Yes."

"That GIT? I'll admit he was the best Potions student in our year, but TEACHING?" Sirius threw his head back and let out a laugh that was probably heard ten stories below. "That does it. I'm never having children. It would be cruel to send them to Hogwarts and submit them to the torture that would be having Snape as a professor."

"Eh, you'd have to keep a girlfriend for longer than a week in order to get to the point where you would have children so I don't think you have anything to worry about." Softly laughing, Remus stretched his hand behind James and whacked Sirius on the back.

Sirius considered this, grinned, and tilted his head to the side. "True." Glancing at James, Sirius leaned over to speak to Remus once again. "You know Moony, I'm curious about something."

"What's that, Padfoot?"

"I flew fifty kilometers to be here after receiving James's owl because it sounded so important, but I really don't see what's important about sitting here watching him stare at his hands looking like a big lump of dragon snot."

The snickers that came from the mouths of Sirius and Remus jolted James out of the trance he was in, and for the first time since they joined him he started to feel like himself. "Oh! Sorry…I just…" He let out a loud sigh, dug the wooden box from his pocket, and opened it up in front of Sirius's face to show him the spectacular pink diamond lying on a piece of black silk.

Sirius flashed his most enormous smile, let out the most feminine sounding squeal that he could muster with his deep voice, and threw himself on top of James screaming. "I thought you'd never ask!"

Forgetting his worries for a moment, James laughed nearly as loud as Sirius did when he was in a good mood and yelled, "Get off of me you nutter!" When all of their laughs had subsided, James looked serious again and stroked the ring as if he was stroking a tear from Lily's cheek. "So yeah, I think I'm going to ask Lily to marry me…tonight." Fully expecting his friends to explode into another wave of hysterical laughter while telling him that they were too young to tie themselves down like that, James was shocked when the exact opposite happened.

"Brilliant!" Remus threw one arm around James and gave him what was halfway between a headlock and a fierce hug. "Is that one of those rings that…"

"Yeah." Heart swelling over the fact that Sirius and Remus weren't trying to make him change his mind, James handed Remus the box and told him to take it around and wave it around a bit. It was an enchanted diamond that, when moved around enough, rapidly changed colors from pink to blue to purple to orange to yellow and every other color one could imagine. While Remus seemed to be entranced by colors, James looked back at Sirius who was still smiling.

"I'm surprised you waited this long, Prongs."

"Really?

"Absolutely! You've been mad about Lily since fifth year. And when she finally gave in and decided to grant you a pity date…" Sirius snorted a quick laugh. "Well, I probably knew that you were a man in love before you did."

"Same here, mate." Remus gently placed the ring back into the box and handed it to James. "Lily's one in a million. When you know it's right, why not go for it?"

James was so happy that he wanted to grab his broom, do a Quidditch style dive all the way to the ground below, do a few backflips in the air, and then grab his friends and hug them until they couldn't breathe. He could hardly believe that they had accepted his words with such happiness and faith that he was doing the right thing. His chest was swelling so much that he thought his heart would break through his flesh and start dancing on his lap.

"When are you expecting her?" Remus asked James with a sudden look of amused concern and wrapped his fingers around his broom. "We can't very well be here when she arrives."

He was right. "Any minute now, actually."

"Any minute now what?"

The three men turned to face the voice behind them, and smiled to see Lily Evans standing there looking absolutely beautiful with her own broom in her hand. She had wrapped a scarf around her hair in an attempt to make her long red locks look somewhat presentable when she arrived. James grinned at her when he realized that her attempt had failed miserably, but her windswept hair made her look even more beautiful than usual.

"Oh nothing." Sirius leapt to his feet and picked up his jacket and broom, closely followed by James and Remus.

Looking at the brooms in Sirius and Remus's hands, she frowned and looked up at both of them. "Don't tell me you're leaving! I haven't seen you two in months."

"Ah, there's a time and a place for everything, and this isn't the time or the place for Moony and I to be right now." Sirius mounted his broom, took Lily's hand and gently kissed it, and began to fly away. Before he was too high, though, he called out to James, "Just remember everything I taught you, Prongs, and you'll be fine. You learned from the master!"

"Haha, you wish!" Bursting with laughter once again as he watched Sirius fly away, he contained himself when he saw that Lily was looking at him with one eyebrow arched and a confused look on her face.

"You guys are weird."

"But that's why you love us, eh Lily?" Remus kissed Lily on the cheek, mounted his own broom, and turned to James right before he flew away in the opposite direction that Sirius had just left. "Good luck." Then in an instant, Remus was gone as well.

Lily wrapped her arms around James and looked up at him with that same bewildered look on her face. "Okay, I'm really confused."

Trying to fight the urge to crush her in his arms and kiss every inch of flesh on her face, James took Lily's hands and unwrapped her arms from his waist. He simply held her hands in his as he looked down for a moment, finding the courage to ask her the big question. Finally, his eyes met hers once more.

"Lily, you know I love you…right?"

"Of course! And I love you too!"

James stuck his hand in his pocket and took it out with the small box hidden in his hand. "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything." Lily still apparently had no clue what was going on. She actually was beginning to look concerned.

It's now or never, James thought. Throwing caution aside, he dropped to both of his knees, looked up at Lily, and opened the box containing the pink diamond before her. "Will you marry me?"

There was dead silence between them for a few moments…even the cars below seemed to disappear. All James could hear was the thumping of his own heart against his chest. Then Lily, tears streaming down her cheeks, threw her arms around James and knocked him backwards. Lying on top of him, she cried out "OF COURSE I'LL MARRY YOU!"

Forget diving down to the street below…now James wanted to jump on his broom and fly to the moon and back. At this moment he believed that he could do it. "Really?" His voice was a mere croak.

"James, I've known since seventh year that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you." She got off of him and knelt next to James, who propped himself up on his elbows. Lily held out her left hand, and James took the ring from the box with a trembling hand and put it on Lily's ring finger.

It was as if they were at Hogwarts again. The sky was clear, the stars were still twinkling, and mere actions were about to prove to be more powerful than any words. James took her face in his hands and pressed the most passionate kiss that they had ever shared on her lips. It seemed to last for ages. When they finally parted from the kiss, breathless and trembling, they looked at each other and knew with all of the certainty in the world that they would spend the rest of their lives together. They'd have children, have a home together, and grow old together. Nothing had ever been so right. And to James, the word forever was the most beautiful word in the world now that it meant that he and Lily would be together for all time.

He closed his eyes and looked up at the stars once again.

Forever.

NOTE: I hope you enjoyed. This is my first Harry Potter story EVER and I long for reviews. J


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